As I cannot stand the taste of Gatorade, I set off in search of other alternatives. I've seen lots of people recommending Vitalyte on here, but it doesn't appear to be available in Canada. I find some whatever brand of powdered drink at my favourite bike shop, but I didn't think I'd need a powder keg-sized amount of electrolytes for the week.

What I did find is powdered coconut water! I tried a sachet of it last night and totally love the taste of it. It's not super cheap at around $0.80 per serving, but it tastes awesome and will probably be the base of a pina colada or two. I've seen recipes for DIY gatorade and the like, but I don't think any of them will be as delicious as this.

junglesmacks wrote:You can purchase Vitalyte via Amazon and have it shipped.

You can also order it ahead of time and pick it up in store at any REI.

Vitalyte is the best, period.

May not even need to pre order - the REI near me stocks quite a bit of it.

Savannah: I don't know what it is, but no thread here escapes alive. You'll get 1 or 2 real answers at minimum, occasionally 10 or 12, and then we flog it until it's unrecognizable and you can't get your deposit back.

Wow, that sucks - I have 2 within easy driving distance. The original one they opened here about 20 years ago is about a 25 minute drive. Recently they opened one that is 1.1 miles from here and I assumed that they were just making a push to open them everywhere.

Savannah: I don't know what it is, but no thread here escapes alive. You'll get 1 or 2 real answers at minimum, occasionally 10 or 12, and then we flog it until it's unrecognizable and you can't get your deposit back.

Drawingablank wrote:Wow, that sucks - I have 2 within easy driving distance. The original one they opened here about 20 years ago is about a 25 minute drive. Recently they opened one that is 1.1 miles from here and I assumed that they were just making a push to open them everywhere.

Eh.. honestly I can see why there's not. Any outdoor sport that you can do here is pretty much covered by Walmart, a dive shop, a surf shop or the like. Camping isn't real big here because of the heat/lack of mountains.

[quote="junglesmacks"Eh.. honestly I can see why there's not. Any outdoor sport that you can do here is pretty much covered by Walmart, a dive shop, a surf shop or the like. Camping isn't real big here because of the heat/lack of mountains.[/quote]

I misread that as "lack of mosquitoes"! I don't know if that is because of my camping experiences and/or I'm just tired...

"Nothing is withheld from us which we have conceived to do.Do things that have never been done."--Russell Kirsch

junglesmacks wrote:Eh.. honestly I can see why there's not. Any outdoor sport that you can do here is pretty much covered by Walmart, a dive shop, a surf shop or the like. Camping isn't real big here because of the heat/lack of mountains.

I misread that as "lack of mosquitoes"! I don't know if that is because of my camping experiences and/or I'm just tired...

Just an FYI, today and tomorrow are the last days that you can order the Vitalyte to be picked up in store at REI in Reno. It's $16 for a kilo of it which is a killer deal. Even on Amazon it's $20+. I'd swoop up on that.. I just grabbed two..

Do you really need a lot of electrolytes? Or do you just think you do? I don't think you do.

In fact, I bet you'll be overloaded with electrolytes as is. If you eat any of your packaged foods, especially junk foods, you're going to have TONS of sodium in your body all the time.

I drank a single can of "Spicy Tomato Juice", the kind that you use for Bloody Marys. It has 60% of my daily recommended value of sodium in that single can. Had some ramen noodles for lunch? That's probably about the same. A can of Coke? Sodium there too.

Hell, you could just sprinkle salt on your food and you'd have enough no doubt.

That just leaves potassium. The potassium helps regulate the sodium in your body, that you'll have too much of anyway. Yes you'll need it, but don't overdo it. Too much can be bad for you. A great source of potassium? Orange juice. WAY more than Gatorade per serving, like 5x the amount. Also try some molasses. This is, of course, if you can't get it through whatever foods you eat already.

I would not even bother with any of those electrolyte drinks unless you plan on shitting water out your ass due to diarrhea the entire trip or you're Lance Armstrong at a bike competition. Even your trance-induced dancing will probably not qualify you for an electrolyte drink. Drink some water. That's all you need.

"The essence of tyranny is not iron law. It is capricious law." -- Christopher Hitchens

The electrolyte products mentioned are all good. There are also threads on make it yourself mixtures.

The key electrolytes are sodium, chlorine and potassium. Sodium and chlorine are easy - table salt and found in prepared foods. Potassium is harder. Read the fine print. You need much more than the RDA on the playa! So if a serving of coconut water has 10% of the RDA (it does), how many servings do you need to consume to get more than the RDA. People who say you just need table salt are wrong.

Electrolytes are needed for muscle and nerve action, as well as other body functions. One year I was drinking plenty of water but ran out of electrolytes. High heart rate that wouldn't go down, no physical energy. If that happens to you go to medical. Its a common playa diagnosis.

some seeing eye wrote:... Read the fine print. You need much more than the RDA on the playa! ... One year I was drinking plenty of water but ran out of electrolytes. High heart rate that wouldn't go down, no physical energy. If that happens to you go to medical. Its a common playa diagnosis.

Interesting.Last year, a doctor on-playa seeing people offered both Gatorade and water, but choosing to drink copious amounts of Gatorade, got upset at their thinking that would protect them or rehydrate them faster. She said that water will absorb faster than anything else. She asked the gifter of the water and Gatorade to steer people, and in particular anyone with dehydration symptoms, to the water, and to consider not offering Gatorade. In addition to the Gatorade, she saw some Emergen-C packets being gifted. She said that although hot, you're not running a marathon in that heat, so you don't need more than the normal amount of electrolytes. In addition to what you eat, most people(~my emphasis) do not need any electrolyte boost so one electrolyte boost per day is plenty (like one Emergen-C packet), more is a waste and way more could mean you end up seeing her (she didn't specify risks/symptoms).

I've got a doctor on-playa telling me one thing and you saying another. Do you have sources for:

some seeing eye wrote:... You need much more than the RDA on the playa! ... Its a common playa diagnosis.

Video games are giving kids unrealistic expectations on how many swords they can carry..... but don't harm the red dragon that frequents the area from time to time. He and I have an agreement.

Down here in Texas, I can see that I am pumping out massive amounts of electrolytes, etc in the volume of sweat I produce from doing just about anything outside in the heat, like loading the roof of the bus. 100+ degrees with humidity gives you a visual clue that hey, you should probably drink something to replace all that liquid and minerals you are loosing. Moderate heat and no humidity? You do not get the same visual clues like being able to wring out your shirt out but you are still pumping it out almost as fast but it is just evaporating almost as soon as it is produced.

In order to wind up in the med tent because of too much electrolyte intake (too much potassium is really the only thing that would land you there) would require a pretty serious effort of potassium supplement intake on the part of the individual. It is physically impossible to overdose on potassium from an electrolyte replacement drink of any brand name due to the fact that all electrolyte replacement drinks, powders, tablets, etc. are 95ish% water and you will be depositing all of your excess potassium and other minerals into the magic blue of the porta pottie as your body flushes it out. Ever notice that bright, fluorescent yellow pee a few hours after taking a mulit-vitamin? Same thing. Your body takes what it needs and gets rid of the rest.

You might be able to pull off a mild imbalance if you ate a few of the 1 kilo tubs of Vitalyte in one sitting with no water, but here again, that would require an enormous investment of effort to accomplish.

Now, I can see the doctor being dismissive of Gatorade because Gatorade is essentially flavored sugar water. It has some replenishment properties, but nothing on the scale as a product like Vitalyte or Cerasport mixes. Gatorade branding is popular in sports because they pay a lot of money to have their logos everywhere and has become the accepted go to sports/outdoor activity drink due to really good marketing.

And yes, it is also true that people are probably are wasting money on electrolyte replacement drinks on the playa, but given the alternative of winding up in the med tent with an IV from going down being dehydrated, I'd rather be pissing out the excess minerals I intake over the course of the day. Plus, plain old water gets really boring after a while. You need a little flavor in there to cut the dust.